Jung "Rain" Yoon Jong, also known as "By.Sun", is a Protoss player from South Korea who formerly played for mYinsanity before retiring. Once a promising Brood War progamer who made a name for himself during the last seasons of the BW Proleague, Rain switched to StarCraft II in May 2012 along with the other players affiliated with KeSPA. He quickly developed into being the most successful of those players, as he delivered great performances in both the 2012 OSL Season 1 and the 2012 GSL Season 4.

Biography

Rain (who was then known as Sun) began his career as a progamer quite late in the Brood War era, playing his first official match in April 2009 in individual league preliminaries.[2] According to him, becoming a progamer was never his intention, as he just played casually (instead of studying) and participated in some tournaments, until he was recruited as a professional player by MBCGame HERO.[3] Rain never managed to qualify for either the OnGameNet Starleague or the MBCGame StarCraft League throughout his Brood War career, only appearing in a few minor individual leagues. He realised noteworthy results in Proleague though, achieving a good 15-9 record in the 2010-2011 Shinhan Bank Proleague for team SK Telecom T1.[4] His crowning achievement took place in the STX Masters 2011, as he managed to all-kill Hwaseung OZ in the finals (defeating sHy, Jaedong, Killer, and HiyA).[5]

Wings of Liberty

First Steps on StarCraft II (May — Aug 2012)

Rain played his first official StarCraft II match on May 20, 2012, in the opening match of the hybrid 2011-2012 Proleague Season 2, as SK Telecom T1 faced Team 8. He defeated Jaedong in this encounter, and went on to appear in the majority of the matches played by SK Telecom T1 in the league, being used as the team's ace player. On July 19, Rain attended the 2012 OSL Season 1 preliminaries, the first season of the prestigious league dedicated to StarCraft II, and successfully earned a spot in the tournament, a feat he had never achieved during his short career as a Brood War progamer. A few days later, he qualified for the OSL main event after placing second in his group in the KeSPA players dual tournament (defeating Bogus and Soulkey and losing to Flying), hence making it to the main tournament. After these matches, he expressed his delight of getting to play on stage for the OSL final rounds, which he described as being his long time dream.[6] He was less successful in the World Cyber Games 2012 KeSPA qualifiers, narrowly losing to ZerO in the finals of his group.

On August 6, Rain made his debut in the 2012 World Championship Series South Korea where he was one of the six KeSPA invites, and was soundly defeated by Curious (whom was the first player non-affiliated to KeSPA he ever faced), therefore dropping in the loser's bracket. This proved to be a temporary setback though, as Rain made his way through it at the expense of horror, the former MLG champion and GSL finalist Leenock, the Brood War legend Jaedong, and took revenge against Curious by eliminating him. A walkover against his next opponent sent him to the loser's semifinals, where he met Creator. The latter player eventually took the upper hand, hence ending Rain's run in the championship one round away from the top four (and second best KeSPA player behind RorO, who placed fourth), which still awarded him a seed in the WCS Asia Finals. A week later, on September 1, GOMTV announced that Rain would be, along with Jaedong, one of the two players affiliated to the KeSPA to be seeded in the 2012 GSL Season 4 Code S (since the GSL season 4 was the first one that KeSPA players were allowed to compete in, Rain and Jaedong became the first of them to play in Code S).[7] The same day, Rain went to play in the first round of the 2011-2012 Proleague Season 2 Playoffs. He had been a major contributor of team SK Telecom T1's qualification for the postseason, with 13 wins and 6 losses in the StarCraft II games (as well as 4 wins and 3 losses in Brood War games).[8][9] He was unable to make the difference for his team in the playoffs though, losing twice to herO during the second round against team CJ Entus (SKT ultimately had to settle with the third place).

Already a Championship Contender (Sep 2012 — March 2013)

Rain found more success in individual leagues in early September, as he cemented his reputation as the best KeSPA player at the time by advancing in both the OSL Season 1 and the GSL Season 4 Code S.[10] In the latter tournament, he placed second in his round of 32 group, inflicting a severe cumulated 4-0 to ByuN (who had reached the semifinals of the previous season) and narrowly losing to Happy. Rain delivered an impressive performance in the OSL round of 16, topping a group in which he was the underdog with three victories over the StarCraft II veterans DongRaeGu and MarineKing and over the reigning, double OSL champion (in Brood War) JangBi. At the end of the month, his fame was taken to a new level as he proved himself to be not only the best player affiliated to KeSPA at the moment, but also a true championship contender running for an unprecedented double Royal Road achievement.[11] The Protoss player indeed emerged on top of his GSL round of 16 group as he defeated TaeJa and Polt, both renowned for their mastery of the Terran-versus-Protoss match-up.[11]

On September 25, he dominated PartinG, then dubbed as one of the best Protoss player in the world, beating him 3-1 in the OSL quarterfinals. Now the last player still in the race in both leagues, Rain went on to crush HerO 3-0 in the GSL quarterfinals on October 3, hence reaching the final four of the GSL as well. A week later, Rain played his OSL semifinals against Last, who had defeated Flash in the previous round. At first, he was completely overwhelmed by his Terran opponent, who soon led 3-0 and stood one game away from securing the best of seven series. However, Rain achieved one of the most spectacular turn of events in the history of the OSL, winning the four last games and earning his spot in the finals. The next day, he was denied a place in the GSL finals by Mvp. They engaged in a back and forth series and eventually found themselves tied 2-2 in that best of five. Rain's fast expand with Dark Templars was countered by a perfectly timed missile turret in the decisive game (Mvp said afterward that he had a feeling Rain was up to something), and he slowly fell behind in term of economy as his cloaked units were unable to cripple the Terran player, whom ultimately attacked with a stronger army and won the match, hence depriving Rain of the opportunity to play in another finals.[12]

Still waiting to know whom he would face in the OSL finals between MC and DongRaeGu, Rain headed to Shanghai four days after his defeat at the hands of Mvp in the GSL semifinals in order to compete in the World Championship Series Asia Finals. For his first event played outside of South Korea, Rain began by flawlessly defeating the lesser-known Terran player Nilon as well as the Zerg veterans F91 and TooDming. Starting from the winner's bracket semifinals, there were only Protoss players remaining in the competition, which could have meant the doom of Rain's run as the Protoss-versus-Protoss match-up was regarded as the one he was the less confident in at the time.[13] He nonetheless made it plain that his in-game skills were still improving at a rapid pace, as he emerged victorious of his matches against CJ Entus's herO, Team Liquid's HerO, and ultimately PartinG in the grand finals, therefore winning a premier event roughly four months after his switch to StarCraft II. Now the reigning Asian champion, Rain was awarded $24,000 (his largest prize to date) as well as a spot in the upcoming 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Throughout these Asian Finals, Rain had achieved an outstanding overall score of 12-1, herO being the only player who managed to take a game of him.

Back in Korea, Rain played against DongRaeGu in the OSL finals in Busan. In the first game on Antiga Shipyard, the eSF player DongRaeGu hive rushed into a deadly Brood Lord-Infestor composition. Despite destroying many Zerg bases, Rain could not overcome the sheer power of his opponent's army, and dropped the first map. In the second game, Rain managed to get a warp prism into DongRaeGu's base and to kill off the crucial Greater Spire, allowing Rain to delay the production of Brood Lords. This gave Rain a timing to get his army up and running before the Zerg player, and thus was able to easily dismantle the forces that DongRaeGu managed to set up to take game 2. In the third game on Ohana, Rain became a master of illusions, initially looking like he was going for an Immortal all-in. In response, DongRaeGu made Roaches and Lings only to discover that Rain fooled him, and took a quick third instead. When Rain finally attacked with his Immortal-Stalker composition, DongRaeGu had no answer for it, and was fooled once again as he made Corruptors after seeing a hallucinated Colossus. In the fourth game on Daybreak, Rain went once again for an Immortal-Stalker army and although DongRaeGu saw it coming and put up Spine Crawlers, it was not enough, having to concede the third game in a row. In the fifth and final game, Rain went for Dark Templars as DongRaeGu went for a Muta-Ling combination. With an epic four-pronged DT attack, DongRaeGu struggled to hold off the map harass, causing his macro to slip while Rain continued to build up a force. With a blink Stalker army, Rain easily caught DongRaeGu's army and force the Zerg player to GG for the fourth game in a row. Finishing the night with a score of 4-1, Rain ended up winning the first SC2 OSL and also protect the OSL throne from the eSports Federation for at least another season.

It was announced on October 29, 2012 that Rain will be playing in the Open Bracket of MLG Dallas in his North American debut.[14] This meant that Rain would be unable to participate in his Code S match due to a scheduling conflict therefore his opponents were all given walkovers, and Rain automatically placed last in his group, going down to Code A.[15] As a participant in the Open Bracket, Rain played through the brutal gauntlet, beating the American Zergs Goswser, Sheth and Suppy to make it into group play. Despite not dropping a single game going through the Open Bracket, Rain faced two-time MLG champion Leenock in the first round in group play, losing 0-2. In the lower bracket, he played against ViBE, Polt and hyvaa, beating them all with a resounding 2-0 to once again play against Leenock in an extended series. Ultimately, Leenock ended up winning with a final score of 4-2, dropping Rain into Loser's Round 5 of the Championship Bracket. On Championship Sunday, Rain played his first game against his teammate soO, winning with a score of 2-1. Following that, Rain was matched against NaNiwa, the last non-Korean player, in a PvP. With two long macro games, Rain proved too much for the Swedish hero to handle, and won with a score of 2-0. With that win, Rain faced Team Liquid's TaeJa in the next round, who was quickly taken apart by Rain with a score of 2-0. Finally, Rain's MLG debut was stopped by Bomber after an epic series. Falling with a score of 2-0, Rain ended up 5th/6th in his first MLG.

Since Rain won the 2012 World Championship Series Asia Finals, he returned to Shanghai to participate in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship on 17 and 18 November. Being placed in Group D with the non-Koreans BabyKnight, State and MaFia, it was expected that Rain would dominate his group and place first. However, BabyKnight surprisingly ended up defeating Rain 2-0 despite being considered one of the best PvP players in the world. In the playoff bracket, Rain showed off his PvZ as he took out the non-Korean Zergs IdrA and KiLLeR, but then ended up losing to Creator in another PvP. In the third place match, Rain beat another non-Korean Zerg in Sen with a score of 3-0 to secure third place in the tournament with a prize of $16,000.

In February Rain would play in MLG Showdowns which allowed Rain to qualify for 2013 MLG Winter Championship, his opponent was Flying who he defeated 3-2.
Rain played in the first 2013 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 of the year. He started at the bottom of Code A where he faced Shine, whom he dispatched 2-0 and advanced to the next round. In the next round he played Terran player KeeN, and once again he defeated his opponent 2-0. In the final Round of Code A he played Flash, and while many expected Rain to beat him he lost 0-2 and was sent to the Up & Downs.

Heart of the Swarm

2013

On March 15, Rain would play in his first Heart Of The Swarm tournament which was 2013 MLG Winter Championship, he qualified for this tournament back in February. In the Round of 32 he faced former GSL champion Seed, Rain showed his superior PvP skills be defeating the former champion 3-0. In the Round of 16 he played yet another former GSL Champion in jjakji. jjakji managed to prove a tougher fight for Rain as he managed to win with a close 3-2 score.
In the Round of 8, his opponent was none other than INnoVation who defeated Rain in the past but Rain has also taken games off of him so it should have been a close match but it was not, INnoVation 3-0'ed Rain and knocked him out of the tournament.
Rain did not participate in the 2013 WCS Season 1 Korea GSL Up & Down's like he was supposed to as he was seeded into Code S. On April 17, 2013, Rain played in Group F in Code S, his opponents were GuMiho, INnoVation, and HyuN. Rain managed to beat INnoVation 2-1, he then faced GuMiho who upset him 2-0, in the final match he played against INnoVation for the 2nd spot to advance, INnoVation was able to win 2-0 knocking Rain out of Code S.

After being knocked out, Rain played in the 2013 WCS Season 1 Korea GSL Challenger League, he was placed into the Round of 32 and his opponent was YongHwa whom he defeated. Rain's next opponent was ByuN who surprisingly took the first map but then lost the next 2 allowing Rain to advance into Code S for next season.

The next season of WCS 2013 WCS Season 2 Korea OSL started, Rain was placed into Group H with Bomber whom he had faced in the past, KeeN who he also played before, and Hurricane who he had not played. Rain defeated Keen, and then Bomber to advance to the Round of 16. The Round of 16 came around and he was placed in a group with hyvaa, First, and teammate FanTaSy. Rain defeated hyvaa, and Fantasy but lost to First, due to how the situation in the group turned out tiebreakers had to take place. Rain managed to defeat First but lost to hyvaa, First would beat hyvaa, Rain would beat First, and then finally Rain and First beat hyvaa and advanced together.
Rain was placed into the Round of 8 and played SuperNova who no one thought could put up a fight but he did barely losing out 2-3 to Rain.
In the Round of 4 Rain would play Bomber easily dismantling him 4-1. Now before Rain played his match against Bomber it was already decided his opponent would be Maru as he defeated INnoVation 4-0 a few days earlier. Coming into the finals many favored Rain to take the finals, and it was looking that way with Rain going 2-0 in the first 2 games, however the next 4 games all went to the Maru, meaning Rain would lose 2-4 and him placing 2nd, Rain will be placed into the next WCS season which is the 2013 WCS Season 3 Korea GSL.

Before that, Rain played in WCS Season 2 Finals, where he was placed into group with Jaedong, MC and Welmu which was called group of death by a lot of people. Many were expecting Rain to easily sweep it, but he was outplayed by Jaedong, following it with being 0-1 down to Welmu. Ultimately, Rain recovered and won against Finnish prodigy and then swept MC to come out from the group. He met TaeJa there and lost 0-3, finishing tournament in 5th-8th place.

In GSL, Rain was seeded into Ro32 group with TRUE, SonGDuri and KangHo and was able to come out first with 4-1 record after beating SonGDuri and KangHo. In Ro16, Rain was able to take down Keen and Trap to win his group again and move into playoffs bracket second time in a row. However, he met Soulkey there and lost 0-3, following it with loss to jjakji in placements matches and losing all chances to go to BlizzCon.

Because of his OSL success, Rain was able to participate in 2013 Hot6ix Cup. In Ro8 he beat Symbol with convincing 3-0 and then he met Dear who was considered as best Protoss in the world despite his loss to Jaedong at Global Finals. Rain was able to take down Dear 3-1 and moved on into finals where he met Soulkey who was eager to secure another championship to his collection. After beautiful series of comebacks, Rain won 4-2 and hoisted a trophy, technically winning his first GSL and securing first Premier tournament win for SK Telecom T1 since PartinG triumph at WCG 2012.

2014

On February 5, Rain started his journey in Code S. Despite losing to herO, he was able to take down Solar twice and move on into the Round of 16.

After that, Rain travelled to Cologne, to participate in IEM Cologne. He got there by winning Korean and Taiwan Qualifier after beating Bunny, Heart, Trust and Revival. Then at the Asian Final Qualifier, he dropped Cure and Bomber but then lost 2-0 to sOs. Dropping down to the lower bracket, he beat Cure again, followed by Jaedong and then he took his revenge against sOs with a 2-0 score, therefore advancing into Stage 2 of the main event in Cologne. There, he was placed into group of heavy fan favourites HerO, ForGG and HyuN, but he was able to top group with 4-1 score and moved into Ro8 where he met jjakji. Rain won 3-1 and advanced into the Ro4, where he ultimately lost to Polt in a back and forth series (3-2 in favour of Polt) and finished tournament in 3rd-4th place.

After coming back to Korea, Rain played in all-Protoss Ro16 GSL Code S group, with Squirtle and two SK Telecom T1 teammates, PartinG and Classic. Rain was able to win against both SKT T1 mates and went into Ro8 where he met herO again, who just lost finals of IEM World Championship to sOs. Rain won 3-2 and advanced into semifinals. In Ro4, he met Zest who was going strong, knocking out SKT1 players in every league he played since his all-kill of SKT T1 in Round 1 of Proleague. Rain was toppled 2-4 and finished in 3rd-4th place.

The next season of Code S was Rain's fourth consecutive appearance in Code S, if not counting OSL. In the Ro32, he met Brood War legend Stork, Ruin and Symbol and won his group with 4-1 score. However, in the Ro16, Rain lost to Solar and Life and with a 1-4 score, fell into Code A.

He was placed in Group D for GSL S3 Code A alongside Cure, Impact and Hydra. He placed first in his group with the map score of 4-0, thus lifting himself back up to Code S. Rain then cruised through his Code S group, beating the GSL Season 1 Champion, Zest and Rogue. He had a similar run on his Ro16 group cruising over EffOrt and Solar. However, on the Ro8, Rain was matched up against Zest and was beaten 0-3.

Leaving SK Telecom T1

On September 11, 2014 (during his Code S run), he announced that he declined to re-sign a new contract with the team SK Telecom T1 and expressed his desire to play in a non-Korean team.[16] He officially left the team on September 30.

He played in the 2014 KeSPA Cup that took place from 11 to 14 September. He qualified into the Ro16 by beating Life 2-1. He played against Bomber in the Ro16 but was knocked out, 1-3.

He was able to get a seed into the 2014 Hot6ix Cup by advancing through the Online Qualifiers. In that run, he beat Hurricane 2-0, Hack 2-0 to advance to the semi-finals of group A. He then defeated Rogue 2-1, lost to TY 1-2 then defeated Rogue once again with a score of 2-1. In the group stage, he was placed with sOs, TY and soO in group B. He advanced in second place, first by losing to sOs 1-2, then beating soO 2-0 and TY 2-1. It was then announced that Rain will not play in the Round of 8 because he choose to go to IEM San Jose instead. His spot will be taken by PartinG, the winner of a wildcard group in which he beat both TY and Flash[17]

On November 10, 2014, it was announced that he had joined mYinsanity.[18]

Rains first big event under the flag of his new team mYinsanity was IEM Season IX - San Jose. After beating HuK, TRUE, ForGG and Bomber he advanced to the finals in which he met herO. Rain was able to secure a 3-1 lead but in the end he lost 3-4, thus ending his year with a second place finish in a premier tournament.

2015

From Asia To Europe

During the first half of 2015, Rain took advantage of being in a foreign team by travelling from continent to continent to attend tournaments. He travelled abroad more times at the first half of 2015 compared to the whole of 2014.

Rain started 2015 by topping his Ro32 Group in the GSL 2015 Season 1, dispatching Panic and the 2014 Blizzcon Champion Life. With more than a month between his Ro32 and Ro16 matches, Rain had time to attend a foreign tournament in the form of IEM Taipei. Rain entered the tournament as a wildcard entry alongside heavy hitters Life, PartinG and herO. He topped Group B and moved on to the quarterfinals by winning both of his PvP matches against Harstem and Classic. Rain then played against Soulkey in a back and forth series but lost 2-3.

Returning to Korea to play his Ro16 matches for GSL, he was pitted against two Zergs and a Terran. He lost 1-2 to Rogue and 0-2 to a SKT conditioned Dream, ending his Code S run for season 1. However, his run ending on February 25 meant that he had a great amount of tournament-free time before his GSL S2 Code A matches.

Gfinity invited Rain to play in the Gfinity Spring Masters I that was going to be held in London, England at the end of March. He topped Group C in the Ro16 with two 2-1 wins over FanTaSy and Hydra. Two days later, in the playoffs, he managed to see off Soulkey in the quarterfinals but his run was halted by PartinG 3-2, in a close semifinals.

Rain then attended another major offline tournament in Europe in the form of Copenhagen Games after cruising through the online qualifiers. He then went through Group Stage 2 and 3 in a similar fashion, having a perfect map score of 8-0 across the two stages. Rain went through well known players like Patience and Jaedong on his way to the quarterfinals. He then dispatched Miniraser 2-0 but was stopped by FanTaSy again in the semifinals after blowing his 2-0 lead to lose 2-3. Rain went home with $750 and 150 WCS points.

This slow ‘resurgence’ was starting to defy the belief that players that left their respective KeSPA teams tend to get weaker due to the change of practise environment. He continued this defiance through GSL Season 2. A week later after Copenhagen Games, Rain was pitted against Jin Air'sCure for his Code A match. He was able to dispatch him 3-1 therefore, lifting himself back up to Code S. In his GSL Season 2 Code S Ro32 group, Rain cruised through his group with clean 2-0 victories over GuMiho and Sorry, but still he said in the winners interview that he did not quite used his full potential. Rain again showed great PvT in the Ro16 and the Quarterfinals going 7-1 against 3 of the world's best Terran players in Maru, INnoVation and Bbyong. In the semifinals, Rain met the resurgent Curious whom he defeated 4-2. Nine days later Rain had to play another PvZ in the finals against ByuL, who a lot of fans and experts[who?] called the best Zerg player in that time due to his Proleague performance and runs in individual leagues. Despite that, Rain dominated the finals winning 4-1 and thus becoming the first player to win the GSL Code S whilst being on a foreign team.

Rain also found some time to play in online cups and travel to offline foreign tournaments between his GSL matches such as the ASL Prime League, in which he defeated Journey 5-2 in the finals and bagging himself $2000. He also attended Dreamhack Tours in France, in which he achieved a top 8 finish after being beaten 0-3 by PartinG in the quarterfinals.

No more than four days after his GSL Championship win, he flew over to Germany to play in TaKe'sHomeStory Cup XI as one of the invited players. In the Ro32, he made quick work of Xenocider and MarineLorD, beating them both with a 2-0 score. Rain did not have a flawless Ro16 run. He unexpectedly lost his first match to the French Protoss player Lilbow with the score of 0-2. However, he was able to bounce back by eliminating Snute then HuK, 2-1 in the decider match. A day later in the playoffs, he met two Terran players, in order, MarineLorD and GuMiho. He continued his winning run against Terran players from the GSL by winning 3-1 and 3-0, only dropping one map to the French Terran player. In the finals, he met another Zerg player and his own teammate, Sacsri. He trailed 1-2 at first but turned it around to win 4-2 thus winning the $10,000 prize.

After undergoing surgery where he donated part of his liver to his father, Rain decided shortly afterwards that it was time to retire and that he needed a break.[19]

Trivia

Rain was the most successful player affiliated to the KeSPA during the first individual leagues in which KeSPA players participated in Starcraft 2. He is indeed, among them, the one who went the farthest in both the OSL Season 1 (which he won) and the GSL Season 4 Code S (where he reached the semifinals), which were the two of the four first individual leagues where KeSPA players were allowed to attend. In the third league of the kind, the 2012 World Championship Series, he placed fifth/sixth overall and second KeSPA player (behind RorO, fourth overall) in the Korea Nationals and won the Asia Finals.